September 2013 archive

vSphere 5.5 Link-O-Rama

Your complete guide to all the essential vSphere 5.5 links. Bookmark this page and keep checking back as it will grow as new links are added.

VMware vSphere 5.5 Product Feature Interactive Walkthroughs – (VMware)
VMware Compatibility Guide (VMware)
VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes (VMware)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Release Notes (VMware)

VMware What’s New Links

What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.5 Platform (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware Tech Paper)

Documentation Links

vSphere 5.5 Product Documentation — PDF and E-book Formats (vmware.com)
vSphere 5.5 Configuration Maximums (vmware.com)
vSphere Installation and Setup (vmware.com)
vSphere Upgrade (vmware.com)
vSphere vCenter Server and Host Management (vmware.com)
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration (vmware.com)
vSphere Host Profiles (vmware.com)
vSphere Networking (vmware.com)
vSphere Storage (vmware.com)
vSphere Security (vmware.com)
vSphere Resource Management (vmware.com)
vSphere Availability (vmware.com)
vSphere Monitoring and Performance (vmware.com)
vSphere Single Host Management (vmware.com)
vSphere Troubleshooting (vmware.com)

Download Links

Main vSphere 5.5 download (vmware.com)
ESXi 5.5.0 (vmware.com)
vCenter Server 5.5.0 (vmware.com)
vSphere Replication 5.5 (vmware.com)
vSphere Data Protection 5.5.1 (vmware.com)
vCenter Orchestrator Appliance 5.5.0 (vmware.com)
Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Ethernet Module for vSphere 5.5.0 (vmware.com)
vCloud Networking and Security 5.5.0 (vmware.com)
vCenter Operations Manager Foundation 5.7.2 (vmware.com)
vSphere Big Data Extensions 1.0 (vmware.com)
vSphere App HA 1.0.0 (vmware.com)
vSphere Management Assistant 5.5 (vMA) (vmware.com)
vSphere PowerCLI 5.5 (vmware.com)
vSphere CLI 5.5 (vmware.com)

ESXi Links

ESXi 5.5 Free Version – no more hard limit 32GB of RAM (ESX Virtualization)
Watch out with Hardware Version 10 in VMware ESXi 5.5! (Ivobeerens.nl)
Back To Basics: Managing VMware ESXi 5.5 Direct User Interface (DCUI) (Mike Laverick)
The vSphere Hypervisor 5.5-Web Client-HW Version 10-dilemma (running-system.com)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Physical Host Maximums (TechHead)
ESXi 5.5 introduces a new Native Device Driver Architecture Part 1 (Virtually Ghetto)
ESXi 5.5 introduces a new Native Device Driver Architecture Part 2 (Virtually Ghetto)
How to run Nested ESXi on top of a VSAN datastore? (Virtually Ghetto)
w00t! VMware Tools for Nested ESXi! (Virtually Ghetto)
Why is Promiscuous Mode & Forged Transmits required for Nested ESXi? (Virtually Ghetto)
The Good and the Bad of the new Native Driver Architecture in ESXi 5.5 (VMware Front Experience)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 1 – The New Hotness in ESXi 5.5 (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCenter Server and ESXi (WoodITWork)

General Links

The Monster VM didn’t get any smarter in vSphere 5.5 but it got a whole lot fatter (vSphere-land)
Configuration maximums that changed between vSphere 5.1 and 5.5 (vSphere-land)
No vMSC certification for vSphere 5.5 yet (vSphere-land)
Top 5 big & little enhancements in vSphere 5.5 (vSphere-land)
vSphere 5.5 – what I like from what’s new (Definit)
VMware Releases vSphere 5.5 – What’s New? (Jason Nash’s Blog)
vSphere 5.5 First Impressions (M80ARM)
VMworld 2013: VMware Announces vSphere 5.5 and vCloud Suite 5.5 (Petri)
Top 5 Features of VMware vSphere 5.5 (Petri)
vSphere 5.5: vSphere Ruby Console (Punching Clouds)
Read the vSphere 5.5 Release Notes!! (Technodrone)
What is new in VMware vSphere 5.5 (UP2V)
An overview of all VMworld 2013 announcements (UP2V)
vSphere 5.5 What’s New at VMworld 2013, NSX, SDDC, VSAN, vFlash (vClouds)
vSphere 5.5 My Top 10 New Features (vClouds)
vSphere 5.5 and VMworld Updates (Virtualised Reality)
What’s New in vSphere 5.5: Configs, The Web Client, vSANs (Virtualization Review)
Top 10 Most Important Features in vSphere 5.5 (Virtualization Software)
Whats new in vSphere 5.5 (Virtualize Tips)
VMTN Communities Roundtable Podcast – ESXi 5.5 What’s New? (VMTN Podcast)
A Summary of What’s New in vSphere 5.5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
What’s New in vSphere 5.5 Platform-Quick Reference (VMware Tech Paper)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 2 – Pushing For A Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: Introduction (WoodITWork)
vSphere 5.5: platform scalability (Yellow Bricks)

HA & DRS

VMware vSphere 5.5 Application High Availability – AppHA (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere App HA – Closer… But Not Yet (Technodrone)
An introduction to VMware AppHA (UP2V)
vSphere 5.5 Application HA, Advanced App Monitoring explained (vClouds)
A vSphere 5.5 Gem: Application High Availability (Virtualization Review)
High Availability in vSphere 5.5 Series – VMware vSphere App HA (Virtualization Software)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vSphere App HA (WoodITWork)
What’s new in vSphere 5.5 for DRS? (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: High Availability Enhancement (Yellow Bricks)

Installing & Upgrading

vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 1: Introduction (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 2: SSO Reborn (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 3: Upgrading vCenter (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 4: ESXi 5.5 Upgrade (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 5: SSL Deep Dive (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 6: Certificate Template (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 7: Install SSO (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 8: Online SSL Minting (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 9: Offline SSL Minting (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 10: Replace SSO Certs (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 11: Install Web Client (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 12: Configure SSO (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 13: Install Inventory Svc (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 14: Create Databases (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 15: Install vCenter (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 16: vCenter SSL (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 17: Install VUM (Derek Seaman)
vSphere 5.5 Install Pt. 18: VUM SSL & Misc. Config (Derek Seaman)
Installation of ESXi 5.5 in VMware Workstation (ESX Virtualization)
vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (vCSA) – Installation and Configuration Video (ESX Virtualization)
VCSA 5.5 Installation and configuration – Part 2 (ESX Virtualization)
Installing and upgrading to ESXi 5.5 – Best practices and tips (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere 5.5 Host Upgrade using vSphere Update Manager (VUM) (Everything Should Be Virtual)
Back To Basics: Install VMware ESX 5.5 (Mike Laverick)
[Lab Post] Installing vCenter Server 5.5 on Windows Server 2012 R2 (mtellin.com)
Upgrade to vSphere 5.5? Take care about your backup software! (running-system.com)
Installing vSphere 5.5 tips and tricks pt 1 (SOSTech)
Installing vSphere 5.5 tips and tricks pt 2 (SOSTech)
Install and configure Orchestrator 5.5 (SOSTech)
Notes on Upgrading the VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.1 to 5.5 (The Lone Sysadmin)
How to Upgrade the VMware vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 (The Virtual Way)
Quick Tip: Using the CLI to upgrade to a specific VM virtual hardware version in vSphere 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)
How to upgrade to vSphere 5.5 (VMGuru.nl)
How to update your standalone host to ESXi 5.5 – beware of missing drivers and do NOT upgrade virtual hardware! (VMware Front Experience)
Update sequence for vSphere 5.5 and its compatible VMware products (2057795) (VMware KB Article)
Installing vCenter Server 5.5 best practices (VMwareKB TV)
Installing or upgrading ESXi 5.5 best practices (VMwareKB TV)
Installing VMware ESXi 5.5 using the Interactive Installer (VMwareKB TV)
Installing VMware vSphere 5.5 on a Windows platform using the Simple Install method (VMwareKB TV)
vCenter Server 5.5 – Simple vs Custom Installations (VMware vSphere Blog)
Upgrading vSphere vCenter Appliance 5.1 to 5.5 (vNinja)
Quick and Dirty ESXi 5.5 Upgrade (vNinja)

Knowledgebase Articles

vSphere 5.5 is here! – KBs you need to know about (VMware Support Insider Blog)

ESXi

Methods of installing ESXi 5.5 (2052439)
Methods for upgrading to ESXi 5.5 (2058352)
Installing or upgrading to ESXi 5.5 best practices (2052329)

General

Update sequence for vSphere 5.5 and its compatible VMware products (2057795)
Processor support discontinued in vSphere 5.5 (2057614)
MSCS support enhancements in vSphere 5.5 (2052238)
Additional SR-IOV support in vSphere 5.5 (2058280)
Required ports for vCenter Server 5.5 (2051575)
Hardware features available with virtual machine compatibility settings (2051652)
Hardware and software requirements for running AMD and NVIDIA GPUs in vSphere 5.5 (2058778)

Storage

Support for virtual machine disks larger than 2 TB in vSphere 5.5 (2058287)
PDL AutoRemove feature in vSphere 5.5 (2059622)

vSphere Replication

vSphere Replication 5.1 may automatically upgrade to vSphere Replication 5.5 (2060190)

vFlash

Virtual Flash feature in vSphere 5.5 (2058983)
vSphere 5.5 Virtual Flash FAQ (2057157)
Setting up a Virtual Flash resource in vSphere 5.5 (2051647)
Disabling Virtual Flash in vSphere 5.5 (2051642)

vSAN

vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN requirements (2058424)

vCenter Server

Methods for installing vCenter Server 5.5 (2053142)
Methods of upgrading to vCenter Server 5.5 (2053130)
Installing vCenter Server 5.5 best practices (2052334)
vCenter Server not listed in the inventory after installing or upgrading to vSphere 5.5 (2059528)
Configuring CA signed SSL certificates for vCenter Single Sign-On in vSphere 5.5 (2058519)
Creating and using a Service Principal Account in vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 (2058298)
Reconfiguring the load balancer after upgrading a vCenter Single Sign-On High Availability deployment to version 5.5 (2058838)
VMware vCenter Server 5.x fails to start after upgrading Single Sign-On configuration from vSphere 5.1 to vSphere 5.5 (2058080)

Web/vSphere Client

Installing the vSphere 5.5 Web Client on a Microsoft Windows platform (2058262)
Logging in to vCenter Server 5.5 using vSphere Web Client or vSphere Client takes a long time (2058827)
Logging into the vSphere Web Client 5.5 fails with the error: Provided credentials are not valid. (2058796)
vSphere Client and vSphere PowerCLI might fail to connect to vCenter Server 5.5 due to a Handshake failure (2049143)
Cannot drag and drop virtual machines across hosts using the vSphere Web Client 5.5 (2059828)

Update Manager

Installing vSphere Update Manager 5.5 on a Microsoft Windows platform (2058410)
Upgrading to vSphere Update Manager 5.5 on a Microsoft Windows platform (2058423)
Upgrading VMware vSphere Update Manager from 5.0 or 5.1 to 5.5 fails with the error: Error 25113 (2059567)

Networking

Enhanced LACP Support on a vSphere 5.5 Distributed Switch (2051826)
Differences in LACP support in vSphere Distributed Switch 5.5 and 5.1 (2051316)
Limitations of LACP in vSphere 5.5 (2051307)

Latency Sensitive Apps

VMware vSphere 5.5 Low Latency Applications Enhancements (ESX Virtualization)
Latency Sensitive Applications on vSphere 5.5 – Deployment and Best practices (ESX Virtualization)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Latency-Sensitivity Feature (TheSaffaGeek)
Deploying Extremely Latency-Sensitive Applications in VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)

Licensing Links

VMware vCloud Suite 5.5 Licensing, Pricing and Packaging (VMware.com)
What is new in VMware vCloud Suite 5.5 (UP2V)
Changes to VMware’s vCloud Suite 5.5 (Viktorious.nl)
VMWorld 2013: Understanding vCloud And vSphere Editions (Virtualization Software)
How to Get Your vSphere 5.5 Licenses (VMware.com)
License key requirements for new version of VMware products (VMware KB article)

Networking Links

VMware vSphere 5.5 Networking New Features (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere 5.5 – Changes on the Network Side (Jason Nash’s Blog)
VMworld 2013: What’s new in vSphere5.5: Networking (Mike Laverick)
Much awaited LACP enhancement – vSphere 5.5 (Stretch Cloud)
LACP Primer – vSphere 5.5 (Stretch Cloud)
Upgrading ESXi host to vSphere 5.5 with Cisco Nexus 1000V (Tom Fojta’s Blog)
Configuring LACP Support in vSphere 5 5 (VMwareTechPubs video)
Enhanced LACP Support in vSphere Distributed Switches (VMwareTechPubs video)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 9 – Networking and VDS Razzle Dazzle (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCloud Networking & Security (WoodITWork)

NSX Links

VMware NSX Product Walkthrough (VMware.com)
VMware NSX and the SDDC Revolution (digirati.me)
Video: VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere – 01 Deploying the NSX Virtual Appliance (Hypervizor)
Video: VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere – 02 Deploying the NSX Controllers (Hypervizor)
Video: VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere – 03 Preparing Hosts and Configuring Unicast VXLAN (Hypervizor)
Video: VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere – 04 Configuring a Logical Switch (Hypervizor)
Diagram: VMware NSX 6.0 for vSphere – System Architecture (Hypervizor)
Traffic Filtering and DSCP Marking in vDS 5.5 (Stretch Cloud)
VMware NSX Conversations (The Virtualization Practice)
The Perfect Storm – My thoughts on the VMware NSX launch (Think Cloud)
Introducing VMware NSX – The Platform For Network Virtualization (VMware Network Virtualization Blog)
VMware NSX Partners: Best-in-Class Services For Virtual Networks (VMware Network Virtualization Blog)
VMware NSX Virtualizes the Network to Transform Network Operations (VMware Network Virtualization Blog)
Seven reasons VMware NSX, Cisco UCS and Nexus are orders of magnitude more awesome together (VMware Network Virtualization Blog)
VMworld 2013: NET5847 – NSX: Introducing the World to VMware NSX (VMworld TV)
VMworld 2013: SEC5893 – Changing the Economics of Firewall Services in the Software-Defined Center – VMware NSX Distributed Firewall (VMworld TV)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 8 – Network Virtualization with NSX (Wahl Network)

Operations Management

Announcing vSphere with Operations Management 5.5 – Increasing Performance and Availability for Your Business Critical Applications (VMware vSphere Blog)
What’s New in VMware vSphere with Operations Management 5.5? (VMware Data Sheet)

Performance

vSphere 5.5 Record Breaking Network Performance (Long White Clouds)
Greenplum Database Performance on VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache in VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
Performance Best Practices for VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
SEsparse in VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
IPv6 performance improvements in vSphere 5.5 (VMware Vroom! Blog)
vSphere Replication 5.5 Performance Findings (VMware Vroom! Blog)
VDI Benchmarking Using View Planner on VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware Vroom! Blog)
A few cautionary notes about replication performance (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Host Power Management (HPM) saves more power and improves performance (VMware Vroom! Blog)

Power Management

vSphere 5.5 Host Power Management (UP2V)
Host Power Management in VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)

Release Notes

VMware vSphere 5.5 Release Notes (vmware.com)

Scripting Links

What’s New in VMware vSphere 5.5: Management APIs (Double Cloud)
VM Storage Policy APIs aka Storage Profile APIs will be available in vSphere 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring the vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC) APIs Part 1 (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring the vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC) APIs Part 2 (Virtually Ghetto)
Exploring the vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC) APIs Part 3 (Virtually Ghetto)
Automate the migration from Virtual Standard Switch to vSphere Distributed Switch using PowerCLI 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)
How to automate vFRC configurations using the command-line in ESXi (Virtually Ghetto)
How to add the missing ESXi 5.0 drivers to the ESXi 5.5 installation ISO (VMware Front Experience)
PowerCLI 5.5 What’s New-Overview (VMware PowerCLI Blog)

Security

vSphere Security: Understanding ESXi 5.x Lockdown Mode (Definit)
vSphere 5.5 Hardening Guide – Public Draft Beta released (VMware Community)
Virtual Appliances getting more secure with vSphere 5.5 – Part 1 (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual Appliances getting more secure with vSphere 5.5 – Part 2 (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual Appliances getting more secure with vSphere 5.5 – Part 3 (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual Appliances getting more secure with vSphere 5.5 – Part 4 (VMware vSphere Blog)

SRM/vSphere Replication

Do *NOT* Install vSphere Replication 5.5 onto your 5.1 environment yet! (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMworld 2013: What’s new in vSphere Replication 5.5 (Mike Laverick)
vCenter Replication 5.5 appliance install (SOSTech)
What is new in vSphere Replication 5.5 (UP2V)
What is new in VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.5 (UP2V)
VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast – 249 – SRM 5.5 What’s New? (VMware Podcast)
VMware vSphere Replication 5.5 Overview (VMware Tech Paper)
VMworld 2013: BCO5129 – Protection for All – vSphere Replication & SRM Technical Update (VMworld TV)
What’s New With vSphere Replication and Site Recovery Manager 5.5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 6 – Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and vSphere Replication (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vSphere Replication and vCenter Site Recovery Manager (WoodITWork)

Storage Links

vSphere 5.5 Storage Enhancements Part 1: 62TB VMDK (Cormac Hogan)
Hot-Extending Large VMDKs in vSphere 5.5 (Cormac Hogan)
vSphere 5.5 Storage Profiles Are Now Storage Policies (Everything Should Be Virtual)
vSphere 5.5 Jumbo VMDK Deep Dive (Long White Clouds)
vSphere 5.5 Windows Failover Clustering Support (Long White Clouds)
VMworld 2013: What’s new in vSphere 5.5: Storage (Mike Laverick)
vSphere 5.5 UNMAP Deep Dive (VMware vEvangelist)
64TB VMDKs? Yes we can. (VM Today)
VMware’s Strategy for Software-Defined Storage (VMware CTO Blog)
What’s New in vSphere 5.5 Storage (VMware vSphere Blog)
Comparing VMware VSA & VMware Virtual SAN (VMware vSphere Blog)
VMworld 2013: STO5715-S – Software-defined Storage – The Next Phase in the Evolution of Enterprise Storage (VMworld TV)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 3 – Lions, Tigers, and 62TB VMDKs (Wahl Network)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: changes to disk.terminateVMOnPDLDefault (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: Change Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding per device! (Yellow Bricks)

vCenter Orchestrator

What is new in VMware vCenter Orchestrator 5.5 (UP2V)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCenter Orchestrator (WoodITWork)

vCenter Server Links

How-to backup and restore VCSA 5.5 internal database (ESX Virtualization)
How to change the default password policies in vSphere 5.5 (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere 5.5 – Using vCenter Server Appliance (Everything Should Be Virtual)
VMware vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) 5.5 deployment tips and tricks (ivobeerens.nl)
VMworld 2013: What’s New in vCenter 5.5 (Mike Laverick)
vCenter Server Appliance 5.5 – some basic information (running-system.com)
Upgrading to vSphere 5.5 and using default self-signed certificates? Read this first! (Viktorious.nl)
VMware vCenter Server 5.5: Installable vs Appliance (Virtual To The Core)
Administrator password expiration in new VCSA 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)
vPostgres Database Backup in vCSA 5.5 (vNinja)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCenter Server and ESXi (WoodITWork)
Drag and drop vMotion not working with the 5.5 Web Client? (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere 5.5 nuggets: vCenter Server Appliance limitations lifted! (Yellow Bricks)

vCenter Server Single Sign-On

The Trouble With SSL Certificates and Upgrading to VMware SSO 5.5 (Long White Clouds)
Single Sign-On (SSO) Improvements in vSphere 5.5 (Petri)
Issues with authentication when running vSphere 5.5 with AD and SSO server on Windows Server 2012 (Shogan.tech)
What is new in VMware Single Sign-On 2.0 (UP2V)
A Look At vCenter 5.5 SSO RC Installation (VMware vEvangelist)
Allow me to introduce you to vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 Not Recognizing Nested Active Directory Groups (VMware vSphere Blog)
vCenter Single Sign-On “Cannot parse group information” Error (VMware vSphere Blog)
vCenter Single Sign-On 5.5 – Backwards Compatible? (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 7 – Single Sign On Completely Redesigned (Wahl Network)
Using Active Directory Integrated Windows Authentication with SSO 5.5 (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCenter Server SSO (WoodITWork)

vCloud Director

VMworld 2013: What’s New in vCloud Director 5.5 (Mike Laverick)
Fast Provisioning Enhancement in vCloud Director 5.5 (Tom Fojta’s Blog)
What is new in VMware vCloud Director 5.5 (UP2V)
VMware vCloud Director 5.5 new features (Virtual-blog)
Reports of vCloud Director’s death exaggerated (VMware ReThink IT Blog)
What’s New with VMware vCloud Director 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
A Summary of What’s New in vCloud Director 5.5 (VMware vSphere Blog)
vCloud Director Convergence and Transition Plan – What’s the Scoop? (VMware vSphere Blog)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: vCloud Director (WoodITWork)

vCloud Hybrid Service

How To Use VPN to Connect Multiple vCHS Clouds (Chris Colotti)
How To Move Workloads Between vCHS Virtual Private and Dedicated Clouds (Chris Colotti)
Understanding vCHS Resource Management – Virtual Private Cloud (Chris Colotti)
An introduction to VMware vCloud Hybrid Service (UP2V)
VMware vCloud Hybrid Service: Now Available to All U.S. Customers (VMware vCloud Blog)
Introducing The New vCloud Hybrid Service Marketplace (VMware vCloud Blog)
What Can I Run On vCloud Hybrid Service? (VMware vCloud Blog)
Introducing vCloud Hybrid Service at VMworld 2013 (VMworld TV)
vCloud Hybrid Service Demo at the VMware Booth, VMworld 2013 (VMworld TV)
vCloud Hybrid Service Overview Video (VMworld TV)
VMworld 2013: PHC5605-S – Everything You Want to Know About vCloud Hybrid Service – But Were Afraid to Ask (VMworld TV)

vFlash Read Cache Links

VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache 1.0 FAQ (VMware.com)
VMware vFlash Read Cache (vFRC) configuration steps (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere 5.5 – A Look at Flash Read Cache (Jason Nash’s Blog)
Introducing vSphere Flash Read Cache (Punching Clouds)
Nested ESXi 5.5 – Configure Virtual Flash? (SOSTech)
Introduction of VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (UP2V)
vSphere 5.5 Flash Read Cache (vFRC) (vClouds)
Introducing Flash Read Cache to my lab – HP N36L (viktorious.nl)
Virtual Flash feature in vSphere 5 5 (VMware KB TV)
Performance of vSphere Flash Read Cache in VMware vSphere 5.5 (VMware Tech Paper)
What’s New in VMware vSphere Flash Read Cache (VMware Tech Paper)
vSphere Flash Read Cache – Single and Multiple Host Configuration (VMware TV)
vSphere Flash Read Cache – Configuring a VM to use Virtual Flash Read Cache (VMware TV)
vSphere Flash Read Cache – Interoperability with HA & DRS (VMware TV)
vSphere Flash Read Cache – Interoperability with vMotion (VMware TV)
Can you combine vSphere Host Cache and vFlash on a single SSD? (vNinja)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 5 – vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFlash) (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: VMware Virtual Flash (vFlash) (WoodITWork)
Introduction to vSphere Flash Read Cache aka vFlash (Yellow Bricks)
Frequently asked questions about vSphere Flash Read Cache (Yellow Bricks)
Something to know about vSphere Flash Read Cache (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Flash Read Cache and esxcli (Yellow Bricks)

Virtual Machine

VMworld 2013: What’s New in vSphere 5.5 – The Virtual Machine – 62TB VMDK (Mike Laverick)
Quick Tip: New Hyper-V guestOS identifier in vSphere 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)

VSAN Links

What’s New in VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware Tech Paper)
VSAN Public Beta Registration (VMware.com)
VSAN Public Beta Program Community Site (VMware.com)
What’s New in VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (Tech paper) (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Beta Technical FAQ (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN Beta – Introduction (webinar slides) (VMware.com)
vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN Public Beta Release Notes (VMware.com)
VMware Virtual SAN Datasheet (VMware.com)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Proof of Concept (POC) Kit (VMware.com)
VSAN Design & Sizing Guide (VMware.com)
VMware VSAN Interactive Product Walkthrough (VMware.com)
VMware vSphere 5.5 Virtual SAN Hosted Beta (Lab Guide) (VMware.com)
VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast – 251 – VSAN (VMware.com)
VMworld 2013 session – STO5391 – VMware Virtual SAN (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN Beta Webinar – Introduction to VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Beta Webinar – How to Install, Configure & Manage (video) (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) Setup (VMware TV)
How To Monitor Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Deploying a Virtual Machine on Virtual SAN (VSAN) (VMware TV)
Changing a VM Storage Policy On-The-Fly with VSAN (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) & VM Availability (VMware TV)
Virtual SAN (VSAN) & vSphere HA Interoperability (VMware TV)
VSAN Part 1 – A first look at VSAN (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 2 – What do you need to get started? (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 3 – It is not a Virtual Storage Appliance (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 4 – Understanding Objects and Components (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 5 – The role of VASA (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 6 – Manual or Automatic Mode (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 7 – Capabilities and VM Storage Policies (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 8 – The role of the SSD (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 9 – Host Failure Scenarios & vSphere HA Interop (Cormac Hogan)
VSAN Part 10 – Changing VM Storage Policy on-the-fly (Cormac Hogan)
VMware VSAN configuration steps with nested ESXi hypervisors (ESX Virtualization)
VMware VSAN Video (ESX Virtualization)
Homelab Thoughts – VSAN (ESX Virtualization)
My completely ridiculous VSAN test (Gabe’s Virtual World)
VMworld 2013: What’s New in 5.5 – vSAN (Mike Laverick)
VMworld 2013: What’s New in VSAN 1.0 (Mike Laverick)
How does VMware VSAN help Horizon View? (My Virtual Cloud)
How is Horizon View configured for VMware VSAN? (My Virtual Cloud)
Why is Content-Based Read Cache (CBRC) so important for Horizon View and VSAN? (My Virtual Cloud)
VSAN Observer (Punching Clouds)
vSphere 5.5: Using RVC VSAN Observer Pt1 (Punching Clouds)
vSphere 5.5: Using RVC VSAN Observer Pt2 (Punching Clouds)
VMware’s VSAN in the Home Lab (Sean Crookston)
vSphere 5.5 VSAN, Introducing Your New Storage Vendor VMware (vClouds)
About VSAN capacity and VMDK placement (viktorious.nl)
VMware VSAN – Virtual SAN – How to configure (Virtual-blog)
Configure Disk Redundancy VMware VSAN – Virtual SAN (Virtual-blog)
VMware Virtual SAN Scalability Limits – VSAN (Virtual-blog)
STO5027 VMware Virtual SAN Technical Best Practices (virtualarchitect.nl)
How to quickly setup and test VMware VSAN (Virtual SAN) using Nested ESXi (Virtually Ghetto)
Additional steps required to completely disable VSAN on ESXi host (Virtually Ghetto)
VSAN and Storage Controllers (VMware vSphere Blog)
Virtual SAN & Disk Groups (VMware vSphere Blog)
Three Hosts, two VSAN Datastores! (VMware vSphere Blog)
vSphere 5.5 Availability and VSAN Public Beta (vNinja.net)
vSphere 5.5 Improvements Part 4 – Virtual SAN (VSAN) (Wahl Network)
In Which I Muse Over VMware’s Virtual SAN Architecture (Wahl Network)
What’s New in vCloud Suite 5.5: Virtual SAN (VSAN) (WoodITWork)
Introduction to VMware vSphere Virtual SAN (Yellow Bricks)
Frequently asked questions about Virtual SAN / VSAN (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN news flash pt 1 (Yellow Bricks)
Testing vSphere Virtual SAN in your virtual lab with vSphere 5.5 (Yellow Bricks)
How do you know where an object is located with Virtual SAN? (Yellow Bricks)
How VSAN handles a disk or host failure (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN and Data Locality/Gravity (Yellow Bricks)
Isolation / Partition scenario with VSAN cluster, how is this handled? (Yellow Bricks)
Initialized disks to be used by VSAN task completed successfully, but no disks added? (Yellow Bricks)
I created a folder on my VSAN datastore, but how do I delete it? (Yellow Bricks)
Be careful when defining a VM storage policy for VSAN (Yellow Bricks)
Designing your hardware for Virtual SAN (Yellow Bricks)
Pretty pictures Friday, the VSAN edition… (Yellow Bricks)
How to configure the Virtual SAN observer for monitoring/troubleshooting (Yellow Bricks)
VMware vSphere Virtual SAN design considerations… (Yellow Bricks)
Virtual SAN and Network IO Control (Yellow Bricks)
vSphere Metro Storage Cluster using Virtual SAN, can I do it? (Yellow Bricks)
4 is the minimum number of hosts for VSAN if you ask me (Yellow Bricks)

vSphere Data Protection

How to upgrade VDP – from VDP 5 to VDP 5.5.1 (ESX Virtualization)
What is new in VMware vSphere Data Protection (UP2V)
What’s New with vSphere Data Protection (VDP) 5.5 (VMware vSphere Blog)

vSphere Web Client

vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – Configure Software iSCSI (blog.shiplett.org)
vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – Create Distributed Virtual Switch and Port Groups (blog.shiplett.org)
vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – Add Hosts to DVS and Create VMkernel Ports (blog.shiplett.org)
vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – Create a New Datastore (blog.shiplett.org)
vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – SSO Configuration (blog.shiplett.org)
vSphere 5.5 Web Client Workflows – Licensing (blog.shiplett.org)
Few tips when working with vSphere 5.5 web client – video (ESX Virtualization)
vSphere Web Client 5.5: Drag & Drop cannot be used to start a vMotion (running-system)
My top 5 favorite enhancements to the new vSphere Web Client 5.5 (Virtually Ghetto)
5 Quick tips for the vSphere Web Client (VMwareTechPubs video)
Examining the User Experience in the new vSphere 5.5 Web Client [Video] (Wahl Network)

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My .02 on VMworld 2013

Well that’s a wrap, another VMworld in the bag for me. This is the 6th VMworld that I’ve attended so I’ve seen it evolve and change over the years and wanted to give my thoughts and feedback on it.

  • Record attendance as usual, my thought on that in this post.
  • Gone are the days where VMworld was like an Apple event, full of mystery and cool feature and new product unveilings. The keynotes back then were a lot more fun and enjoyable compared to today where almost everything that is announced you already know about. Things like vSAN, vVols, NSX and vFlash we’ve known about for a while now and were featured in prior VMworlds. So VMware is basically announcing things that they’ve already announced and in typical fashion many of the features you still have to wait for until a new release after 5.5 comes out. The end result is that I found that the keynotes were not that exciting, especially when we had the new guys (Pat, Carl, Robin) doing it, it just wasn’t the same as past years. Paul Maritz and Stephen Herrod had a special way of generating excitement and captivating the audience that will be missed.
  • Also in the keynote VMware the OpenStack elephant briefly entered the room and quickly moved on, you can probably guess why.
  • The streaming of the Day 1 keynote was very smooth, I prefer watching it from the hotel room where I can capture things more easily. I don’t know why VMware chose not to stream the Day 2 keynote, it would of been nice to give you the option of not fighting the crowds and watching it wherever you wanted to.
  • VMware for gosh sakes, please count anyone that attends a VMworld regardless of how they got there towards alumni status. Right now if you went as a blogger, press, exhibitor or some other types of passes they don’t consider that as having attending the event and so it doesn’t count towards alumni status which you get when you have attended at least 3 VMworld events. If I’m there, I’m there OK, count it towards alumni, you’re making all those people that are losing out feel unwanted. It might seem like a trivial thing but it feels nice to be recognized as an alumni.
  • Last year was pretty cramped but they did a good job this year with spreading things out and had things spread out further across some of the nearby hotels. It was nice being able to go downstairs from my room in the Marriott to see a session first thing in the morning.
  • Thank you VMware for not making us eat outside this year in a park with no seating, pigeons and overflowing garbage cans. It was good to have lunch indoors this year and also split into both Moscone North and West.
  • Storage and Networking were the big highlight areas for VMware at the show. On the networking side you had the NSX product which was the result of VMware’s Nicira acquisition, I don’t know a whole lot about it but the networking crowd seems to be fairly excited about it. The one interesting thing I noted on the keynote slide that showed 15+ partners that were working on NSX integration was that Cisco was missing from that list. That wasn’t by mistake either as it seems Cisco wants to sell their own networking solutions and not integrate with VMware on NSX. On the storage side you had all the new storage technologies (vSAN, vVols, vFlash, Virsto) that VMware has been talking about for a while now, so no real surprises there. However the only one that will be available in vSphere 5.5 is vFlash, vSAN will be a public beta for a period of time before it is fully supported (H1 2014). There was hardly any talk of vVols this year as VMware still has a lot of work to do to get that out the door. There was a lot of noise about vSAN  though that was reflected everywhere at the show including sessions and in the Solution Exchange.
  • Speaking of Virsto, it was mentioned in the keynote but there was hardly anything else on it at the show. I went to the one session that they had on it hoping to find out what VMware plans on doing with it but that was not covered at all. They basically just covered the architecture and how everything works as the product is today, what I want to know is how they are going to integrate it into vSphere. Today they sell the product just as it was before they bought it, I’m guessing that they are going to take some of the technologies from it and use them in their existing and future storage architecture. While what it does is cool, overall as the product is today it seems overly complicated with a lot of components which requires you to basically replace the existing vSphere storage architecture. I think it will be much better when VMware can blend it into their storage architecture.
  • The announcement of vSphere 5.5 seemed to get lost in the show as the focus stayed on some of the big upcoming features. VMware has a paper on what’s new in vSphere 5.5 and it show be available sometime in September. As usual there are tons of little enhancements and features that don’t get much mention, so turn to the blogs to find out more about them. I’ll be publishing my vSphere 5.5 mega-link list soon that will have everything in one place for you.
  • I thought the sessions went very smooth this year, VMware did a good job of organizing and scheduling them. It seemed like there were a lot more than last year which is a good thing as more sessions make the cut and you can pick and choose what you want to see.
  • It sucks that VMware doesn’t give backpacks to everyone, they were actually pretty cool this year and being the 10th anniversary made them collectible. I can understand on keeping costs down but VMware should at least offer them for sale in the VMworld store for anyone that wants to buy one.
  • I was pretty surprised to see the winners of the annual Best of VMworld awards that Tech Target runs each year at VMworld. I haven’t heard of many of the companies that won and were finalists.  The winners this year seem to reflect that either big vendors aren’t innovating anymore or just not participating. I tend to believe the latter, you have to self-nominate your products and I think the bigger vendors don’t bother that much. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of small companies with cool products, but seriously a UPS power management tool is the best of the best in virtualization management tools for vSphere?
  • I spotted Stephen Herrod at VMworld when I was talking with some people over by The Cube. He may not be VMware’s CTO anymore but it’s hard to turn your back on something that you have been passionate about for so many years so I can’t say I was surprised to see him. The folks at The Cube were quick to pounce on him and stick a microphone in his hand.
  • Lots of great parties this year, I went to the SolarWinds vMixer, VMunderground, Veeam party and an HP party. My only gripe with the VMunderground this year was it was too far away and there were hardly any cabs around the location if you wanted to take one back.
  • The Solutions Exchange was really crowded this year with steady traffic almost every day. Lots of energy in there and lots of great products so its always fun to walk around and take it all in.

All in all I think VMware did a excellent job executing VMworld this year and I look forward to going back next year. It always flies by so quickly and there are so many people that I wanted to bump into but didn’t so I’ll have to wait another year to see them.

Below are some of the Day 1 keynote slides with my comments on them:

vmworld11

I liked this slide that showed a visual representation of VMware innovation over the years. The standout innovative feature on that slide is vMotion which VMware made a special point of recognizing. Today we take vMotion for granted but you have to admit the first time you saw it after it was introduced it was pretty damn impressive.

vmworld3I like the ‘Apps heart vSphere” theme, VMware had bumper stickers with that slogan all over that they were giving away. In the vSphere 5.5 release you can now virtualize any app, especially with the monster VM getting even bigger in vSphere 5.5. Of particular note VMware has paid some attention to the one app that has historically been difficult to virtualize, low latency apps. Those types of application are very sensitive to any type of latency and need to service requests in microseconds. In a virtualized environment any lag or performance bottleneck can impact those apps. VMware’s solution to this is to use CPU affinity which has been around for a while that can dedicate a CPU to an application and some additional resource settings to ensure that VMs serving low latency apps get top resource priority.

vmworld5This slide shows some of the storage evolution with VMware, while some of the software features that fall into their Software Defined Storage category they have innovated, the VSA isn’t one of them. VSA’s have been around for many years before VMware released their own VSA.

vmworld6vmworld7These two slides illustrate VMware’s approach to Software Defined Storage, vSAN fits into that converged infrastructure pool with servers and local storage, the external pool below it will be vVols fits in one it’s released. The virtual data plane features many of VMware’s policy based storage controls, they are shifting to a more granular per-VM module across all their storage implementations. I suspect Virsto will surface here eventually as it already provides this today.

vmworld8This slide illustrates the major storage pillars/features/architectures that VMware will have in vSphere. Note vFlash is really the only one that you can use in vSphere 5.5. vSAN will be a public beta until next year, vVols is still a ways out and Virsto is really just the same standalone product it always was before VMware acquired it.

vmworld9vmworld10These slides cover VMware’s new focus on network virtualization with NSX that completes their vision for the Software Defined Data Center. Now that compute is conquered, storage is mostly conquered they are moving on to the final piece of the SDDC puzzle.

vmworld111vmworld12These two slides illustrate how much the data center is being virtualized, 2010 marked the crossover of data centers having more VMs then physical servers, 2012 marked the crossover of data centers using more virtual network ports then physical network ports. Besides being more virtualized today I think two factors helped this trend, larger single adapter network bandwidth (10Gbe, 16Gb FC) and VM sprawl. The net effect is that vendors that sell physical network products need to shift their focus more and more to virtual network products if they want to sell products. While there will always be the need for physical networking much of the intelligence is being shifted from the physical side to the virtual side the same way it happened with storage.

vmworld13The OpenStack elephant, VMware had to mention it as it is becoming increasingly popular in cloud data centers. They probably spent less than 30 seconds on this slide and just wanted to do the obligatory “yeah we work with OpenStack” and that’s it. Obviously VMware wants you to buy their own cloud, management and virtualization products but say if you do use OpenStack you can fit our products into it.

vmworld14Finally VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service, basically just vSphere and vCloud extending to VMware’s public hybrid cloud offerings. Also VMware introduced their vCloud Automation Center which is the end result of their Dynamic Ops acquistion, the end result is two separate products, vCloud and vCAC with vCAC being the more robust and advanced product. The whole VMware cloud offering is getting muddled and confusing and VMware constantly shifts strategies, licensing and product offerings for cloud.

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